


Hope

by theGreenGlowBat (magic1034)



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Green Lantern - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 08:01:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25519939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magic1034/pseuds/theGreenGlowBat
Summary: (Zombie Apocalypse AU) On a mission to search for possible survivors in Coast City, a year after everything spiraled out of control, Batman comes across a long lost friend.
Relationships: Hal Jordan/Bruce Wayne, Kyle Rayner/Jason Todd
Comments: 14
Kudos: 71





	Hope

**Author's Note:**

> This entire work was inspired by a Tumblr post. More specifically, a masterpiece of art by htnks.
> 
>   
>  <https://htnks.tumblr.com/post/623682090225025024>   
> 

Bruce swore as he tripped over some debris as he tumbled inelegantly into the dark alleyway. Maybe he should have stayed back in the Watchtower and gotten some rest. Clark could have taken this mission instead, Clark could have done this mission far quicker and more efficiently than Bruce could. In fact, Clark could have been done with this mission by now. But, no. Bruce had taken one look at Clark’s miserable puppy expression - even more miserable than it was usually these days - and Bruce had caved like a house of cards. 

Maybe Bruce wasn’t being fair. Today was the anniversary of Lois’ death. It would make sense that Clark would feel particularly mopey as he mourned Lois and it was definitely not some horrible plot to not allow Bruce to sleep. Not that he slept a lot usually, but four days straight was pushing it, even for him.

Bruce closed his eyes as he heard the horde of zombies that had been chasing him steadily come closer to his hiding spot. Not for the first time, Bruce felt grateful that the zombies couldn’t run very fast. It made it very easy to slip away - when one wasn’t sleep deprived as Bruce was currently learning.

Actually, he should be signalling Clark or Rayner or whoever it was that was on Monitor Duty to beam him back up to the Watchtower. Dipping into his last reserve of energy, Bruce battled open his eyes and pushed himself up, only to freeze when somebody grabbed his shoulder. Whoever grabbed his shoulder didn’t wait for Bruce to catch his breath as they hauled him up and shoving him further into the alley and finally letting him drop to his knees behind a dumpster.

By then, Bruce had managed to wrangle himself into high alert and the moaning horde of zombies that Bruce had thought were still a ways away were currently running past the alley entrance.

Bruce took a couple of steady breaths as he realized just how close he was to being dead. Jason would have laughed and then resurrect Bruce just so he could bash Bruce’s skull in again for dying because _Bruce couldn’t be bothered to sleep._

Bruce waited for the horde to pass their alleyway and then waited another minute for good measure before he looked up to see who had saved him and to offer his savior sanctuary on the Watchtower or on their small colony on the moon. An offer that died on Bruce’s lips the moment he opened them because standing above him was _Hal Jordan._

Hal Jordan who was clearly a zombie, that is, if this wasn’t all some elaborate hallucination that his sleep-deprived brain cooked up. When the zombie apocalypse first broke out last year, Jordan had been in a completely different sector for some trivial mission or other and by the time news had reached Hal, the apocalypse had already spread to all major city centres. The last Bruce heard, Hal was seen flying at a breakneck speed towards Coast City to find Carol Ferris and the rest of his friends and family. Hal had been missing since. Looked like Bruce unintentionally solved that mystery.

“You’re a zombie,” Bruce stated uselessly as he looked his teammate over. Hal’s tanned skin had lost its colour and had taken the same grayish quality to it just like all the other zombies. However, Bruce noted, Hal’s hazel eyes remained the same shade but they were dull. Hal’s brown hair was a complete mess, matted with dirt and, what Bruce suspected to be, blood. As for Jordan’s attire, he was wearing his father’s flight jacket over what appeared to be a ratty old white school shirt and jeans that were basically shredded and unsalvageable. An old green damaged converse sneaker covered Jordan’s left foot and only a dirty gym sock filled with holes covered Hal’s other foot. Actually, Martin Jordan’s old flight jacket seemed to be the most well kept thing on Hal’s person. It was dirty and there was a tear in one of its arms, but it was repairable. Bruce vaguely wondered if Hal was still conscious enough to recognize the jacket’s significance.

Suddenly a thought occurred to Bruce and his eyes easily pinpointed the Lantern ring on Hal’s right middle finger, but it seemed to be dull and lifeless.

What really bothered Bruce was the injuries that were on Hal’s body. Hal’s left hand was completely missing, and there was literally a chunk of flesh missing from Hal’s left lower leg, it was literally bone and Bruce had no idea how Hal was still standing. Whatever it was that took out that chunk of flesh had ripped through his jeans as well.

It also seemed that maybe the zombie in front of him was conscious and not just another brainless zombie because Bruce just realized that Hal had tilted his head to the side at Bruce’s statement. It was like Hal _heard_ Bruce but couldn’t understand what he was saying. That and the fact that Hal was a zombie and wasn’t trying to bite Bruce like a rabid dog.

Bruce snorted. If there was one person in the world whose will was strong enough to overcome their zombie brain, it would be Hal Jordan.

Then Hal started to disappear and Bruce realized that he had his Watchtower communicator in his hand. He must have taken the communicator out of his pocket and signaled the Watchtower to beam him up right before Hal had dragged his ass to safety.

* * *

“I’m so sorry, Bruce.” Clark apologized profusely after Bruce walked out of the transporter room that also doubled as the decontamination chamber.

“It’s fine,” Bruce shrugged as he tossed his towel into the nearby laundry basket, but it did nothing to deter Clark.

“I stepped away to fetch something to eat, I hope you didn’t wait too long,” Clark explained.

“Mm,” Bruce acknowledged as he wondered if he should mention Hal or not.

“Did you find where that distress signal was coming from?” 

“Yes. The place seemed to be abandoned. There was a corpse of a zombie and a lot of dust inside of the warehouse. I don’t think whoever made that beacon survived.” Bruce shook his head.

“Maybe they were chased out?” Clark asked hopefully.

Bruce shook his head again, “If they were, they would have come back for the beacon or they would have grabbed the beacon before they left. Whoever made that beacon knew what they were doing, it was a beautifully designed piece of tech.”

“Then why didn’t we pick up the signal earlier?” Clark frowned.

“My best guess was that the warehouse was lined with something that blocked the signal, I didn’t get a chance to investigate it further,” Bruce explained. Bruce was also too tired to conduct a thorough investigation, but Clark didn’t need to know that.

Clark sighed, “Alright. Go to sleep Bruce. I will stay up here for another hour and then I will switch off with Kyle.”

“Go easy on yourself, Clark. I know today is hard for you,” Bruce mustered out.

“Thanks, Bruce, I will.” Clark smiled sadly before he turned away to survey the monitors again.

* * *

Bruce’s sleep had been full of nightmares as usual. In the past, his nightmares had consisted of watching his parents die in front of him again and again or watching his friends die and being unable to do anything to stop it. Nowadays it was a mixture of that and watching his family and friends become zombies. It was the worst because Bruce knew that the chance of finding a cure was low and it would be kinder to kill them to put them out of their misery. But killing his family or friends, even if they were zombies, was something Bruce never wanted to do and he considered himself lucky that he had managed to avoid those situations.

But this time, in his nightmare, he was pointing a gun at zombie Hal who was just looking blankly at him like he had in that alleyway and he would pull the trigger. It sickened him even though Bruce rationally knew that the zombie wasn’t really Hal. Not really. Yet something still twisted in his gut.

* * *

A week later, Bruce found himself walking into the Watchtower’s cafeteria, looking for their resident Green Lantern.

“Rayner,” Bruce greeted gruffly, sitting down across from the young man.

The Green Lantern was a handsome young man, full of youth with a fighting spirit to match, much like Jason but where Jason turned to his anger - no doubt a consequence from the Lazarus Pit, Kyle had mellowed out and was more laid back. Only if one was to look closely at the man sitting in front of Bruce could they see the haunted look in Kyle’s eyes. 

“Sup’ Bats,” Kyle asked after he swallowed down his bite of mashed potatoes.

“Your ring. Does it protect you from viruses?” Bruce asked.

Kyle paused from where he was spearing a piece of chicken on his plate. Bruce watched him impassively as Kyle looked up to study his face.

“You mean, does it protect me from turning into a zombie?” Kyle asked, a hint of bitterness leaked into his voice - survivor’s guilt, Bruce thought idly. “Yeah, sort of. The ring - depending on how strong it’s bond is with it’s chosen host - should theoretically improve your immune system so that nothing should affect it, especially when you're wearing the ring.”

“Hm,” Bruce grunted in acknowledgement.

Kyle was silent as Bruce brooded over the new information. It wasn’t until Kyle finished his lunch and was wiping his mouth with a napkin that he spoke up again, “Is there something going on? I overheard Superman, Cyborg, and the Martian talking yesterday and they were concerned about your trips to Coast City. You never particularly cared about visiting any city outside of Gotham unless it was for a mission of some sort.”

Bruce looked at the young man warily. As much as Kyle reminded Bruce of Jason, he also reminded Bruce of Dick in the way he acted friendly and carefree. It hid the fact that they were much more observant and smarter than they let on. That also happened to be a reason why Bruce tried to avoid Kyle as much as he could, it was too much of a reminder of the loss of his son. 

“Is this about Hal?” Kyle asked finally, his eyes carefully studying Bruce’s face.

Bruce thought for a bit. He didn’t want to tell anyone until he was sure that whatever he saw the week before really wasn’t just some twisted sleep-deprived hallucination. There was also the fact that he sort of wanted to keep Hal for himself. He knew in his gut that Hal hadn’t acted like any of the other zombies that he had met and he knew that most, if not all, of the league would want Bruce to put Hal out of his misery rather than try to help the lost Lantern.

On the other hand… Bruce had spent a week looking for Hal and he was getting nowhere. He was starting to doubt himself - and his sanity - and it would be helpful to have the help of another Green Lantern. There was also the tidbit of information that Kyle had just told him about which would suggest that if there was anyone who would believe Bruce’s theory that Hal somehow stopped himself from fully turning into a zombie, it would be Kyle. 

“Come with me,” Bruce ordered as he stood up.

Kyle’s eyes widened in surprise and he hastily stood up himself, grabbing his lunch tray.

Bruce turned around and marched towards the cafeteria entrance, only pausing to allow Kyle to dump his tray before continuing out the cafeteria and towards his quarters, ignoring Shayera’s curious stare when the pair of them hurried passed her in the hallway.

“Bats?” Kyle asked quietly after Bruce locked the lead door to his quarters behind them. Bruce looked briefly at Kyle’s face, it was filled with concern.

“My quarters are lined with lead and it is soundproof. None of the supers here will be able to overhear us,” Bruce explained.

“This must be really important. Especially since you’re asking for my help. I know you have been avoiding me,” Kyle observed as he took a seat on the edge of Bruce’s bed.

Bruce barely suppressed a wince, “I have not been avoiding you.”

Kyle only gave Bruce a skeptical look, “Uh huh.”

Bruce sighed and took off his cowl, and allowed Kyle to see the exhaustion in his face. “I… apologize. You remind me of my son and it’s difficult to be around you.”

Kyle nodded, “I understand. Also, you should know. I’m dating Jason.”

“... What?” Bruce spun from where he was grabbing two cans of beer that he had stored in his mini fridge. 

“You heard me,” Kyle laughed, sporting a shit-eating grin.

“You did that on purpose,” Bruce accused lightly as he handed the laughing man a beer. The sudden way that Kyle had dumped the news on Bruce was a needed distraction that he didn’t realize he had needed and all lingering thoughts of Dick fell away as he parked himself onto the armchair stationed at the corner of the room next to the mini fridge..

Kyle beamed at Bruce, “Hell yeah. Jason’s going to be upset that he wasn’t here to see your face. It was priceless.”

Bruce laughed before proceeding to laugh harder at Kyle’s awed look.

“Oh man. I made the grumpiest person on the planet laugh. My life’s work everybody,” Kyle smiled.

“There hasn’t been much to laugh about, to be fair,” Bruce defended lightly.

Kyle nodded, his smile turning grim, “Can’t argue with that.”

“Are you and Jason happy?” Bruce asked as he opened his can of beer that let out a quiet hiss.

“Yeah,” Kyle’s smile turned lopsided.

“Mm,” Bruce acknowledged, and they sat there in silence for a while, just drinking their alcohol before Bruce spoke up again, “I always thought that Jason would end up with Kori.”

Kyle sighed, staring at the wall away from Bruce, “Jason did try. They thought it would be easier for Lian if the two of them were together. But Jason could never replace Roy and he couldn’t stay away from Earth for too long. Kori worried after Jason each time he would beam down there to look for survivors or to look for Damian or something. Her worrying got worse each time he left. So they decided they were better off apart and if Jason just kept being Uncle Jay.”

“You don’t seem happy about that story,” Bruce observed.

Kyle shrugged, “Jason loves Kori.”

Bruce watched Kyle for a while before he spoke, “Jason does love Kori. But he doesn’t love her like he loves you.”

“How do you know?” Kyle asked, his green eyes locking onto Bruce’s own grey-blue eyes.

There was a pause as Bruce thought. Kyle didn’t seem to mind and patiently waited Bruce out as he fidgeted with the can in his hands. Bruce went through a bunch of stories that were mostly just words that didn’t have any substance in his head. But eventually, Bruce decided on the truth. He was the one that needed Kyle’s help and his discretion. Plus, Kyle was a good man and Bruce approved of Jason’s choice.

“Because I raised Jason for many years. As much as Jason insists that I know nothing about him, I still know him at his core,” Bruce smiled as memories floated through his mind, “Jason would never play with your feelings like that. He wouldn’t have agreed to date you if his feelings weren’t serious. Yes, Jason loves Kori, but that was a relationship born from years of friendship. Roy and Kori were there for him when I failed to. In many ways, Roy and Kori saved Jason in ways I never could. Jason would do anything for Kori. But their love, as deep as it is, is only platonic. Jason only considered it because - as you said - of Lian. However, his love for you? That’s completely different.”

Bruce paused to take another sip of his beer, savouring it. It wasn’t the best beer in the world, but beer or any alcohol in general wasn’t as easy to come by as it was before. 

“Did you know that Jason has never dated anyone?” Bruce asked.

Kyle spluttered, choking down the sip of beer he just took, “What?”

“Through all the years that I have raised him and the years after his resurrection, he has never dated anyone. Back when he was younger, it was because his classmates looked down at him because of his origins and thought he was my charity case. Later on, it was because he didn’t want to drag anyone into his dangerous lifestyle,” Bruce then looked up from his can of beer to pin Kyle with an intense look, “You are the first person that Jason has let in. Whatever walls he had built up, Jason had decided that you are worth it. He would have never done so if he wasn’t serious about you.” 

When Bruce was done, Kyle looked away from Bruce, deep in thought. Bruce let the silence fill the room as he threw back the rest of his beer. He hadn’t meant to talk this much about Jason when he had led Kyle to his quarters, and while he was no expert in human emotions, something told him that Kyle needed to hear this.

“Thank you,” Kyle whispered finally. “I didn’t realize this was bothering me as much as it did.”

Bruce shrugged, “You’re good for him.” 

“I guess this means that I have your blessings, huh?” Kyle grinned.

“I hope I don’t need to tell you what I will do to you if you hurt him,” Bruce pinned Kyle with a sharp look.

Kyle nodded, face serious, “I don’t plan to. I love Jason.”

Bruce gave a sharp nod. He tossed his empty can into the metal trash can located on the other side of the wall next to the door to the washroom with scary accuracy without looking and reached for his mini fridge to grab another.

“As much as I would love to continue talking about Jason, I’m pretty sure you didn’t hustle me into your quarters just to talk about him.” Kyle prodded after he watched Bruce take a swig of his second can of beer.

“I didn’t,” Bruce agreed, “I need you to promise me that you won’t tell anyone about what I am about to tell you. Not even Jason.”

“Alright,” Kyle agreed easily, a determined look plastered on his face as he straightened his back from his previously slouched position.

Bruce gave Kyle an intense look and waited for the young man to twitch in discomfort before he confessed, “I found Jordan last week.”

“You did?” Kyle leaned forward in interest, “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because Superman and the others would want me to let it go, but I can’t do that.” Bruce explained curtly.

“Hal is a zombie. But you don’t think it fully took hold on him. That’s why you asked me if my ring protected me from becoming a zombie in the cafeteria. You can’t have anyone else knowing because they will try to stop you from hunting down Hal.” Kyle connected the dots.

“Correct,” Bruce confirmed.

Kyle studied Bruce’s face searchingly, “Tell me why you think Hal didn’t turn full zombie.”

Bruce scowled at Kyle, leveling him with his bat-glare.

“Oh please,” Kyle huffed, “There’s no harm in making sure you’re not seeing things that aren't there. Besides, I’m already inclined to believe you anyways. I don’t know Hal very well, but I know he’s as stubborn as you are. If there is one person in the world who could beat off a zombie virus by sheer willpower, it’s him.”

Kyle’s comments were enough for Bruce to relax minutely. Deciding against telling him that there was a minuscule chance that Jordan was just a hallucination, Bruce recounted, “Jordan’s flight jacket. Everything else that Jordan was wearing was pretty much dirty and damaged beyond repair. But his flight jacket looked well-maintained in comparison. When I tried to talk to him, he seemed to hear me but seemed to understand, unlike regular zombies who won’t react at all no matter how loud you try to talk to them. He didn’t try to bite me and actually helped me get to cover.”

“He helped you get to cover and he didn’t try to bite you?” Kyle latched onto what seemed to be the most important tidbit of information.

“Yes. This either means that Jordan, on some level, recognized me and had enough self-control to not try to bite me, or he doesn’t have the instinct to attack any living thing. The jacket is also important because it means that Jordan still remembers his past, or at least some of it. That jacket belonged to his father, he always wears it and he always takes careful care of it.” Bruce elaborated as he realized that Kyle may not know the significance of Hal’s jacket.

Kyle hummed as he mulled over what Bruce told him. Suddenly Kyle’s eyes snapped to Bruce’s, “Wait, was he wearing his ring?”

Bruce blinked, “Yes, he was. Is that important?”

“Could be. I’m not sure. Usually if the ring’s host is dead, the ring would fly away in search of a new wearer, but clearly it didn’t so it registers Hal as alive. I don’t know if becoming a zombie will make the ring think that it’s host is dead or just sick,” Kyle mused aloud.

“Can you find out?” Bruce asked.

Kyle nodded, “I will need some blood samples of the infected. I can bring it to Oa and ask the doctors there.”

“You got it. How soon can you leave?” Bruce inquired, his thoughts racing.

“Day after tomorrow. John’s scheduled to come back tomorrow evening. Do you think we should fill him in?” Kyle asked.

Bruce shook his head, “I don’t want to get his hopes up if this doesn’t work out. Besides, John is more likely to think that we are wasting our time despite being good friends with Jordan.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Kyle agreed, “Is there anything else you need?”

“Yes, I need you to come with me to Coast City tomorrow. I need you to track down Jordan’s Green Lantern battery. We need to secure it. Then we look for Jordan. We need to gather more data.” Bruce laid out his plan.

“Sounds like a plan,” Kyle agreed.

* * *

“Babe.” 

“Jay,” Kyle smiled at his tall boyfriend, “Kill a lot of zombies?”

“Hell yeah. Great stress relief,” Jason grinned, a little manic, as he strode into Kyle’s quarters.

“With a little added bonus of giving your Dad an aneurysm every time you head out just to bash some heads,” Kyle grinned unrepentantly as Jason scowled at him. Jason hated it when Kyle referred to the Bats as his Dad and it was the exact reason why Kyle did it. Nobody said Kyle couldn’t be a little shit.

“Not my Dad,” Jason sniffed petulantly. It was adorable. Kyle reached up to kiss him and Jason relaxed as he melted into the kiss.

They made out lazily for a while before they pulled away, “Did you do anything interesting today?” Jason asked quietly as he placed his forehead against Kyle’s.

“Nothing much. Pestered Jaime for a while when he was on Monitor Duty. Lazed around.” Kyle shrugged as he pushed himself away from the edge of the bed to make room for Jason.

Jason hummed, “Let’s go on a date tomorrow. I heard they built a movie theatre on the Moon. They’re showing old classics.”

Kyle winced, “Sorry, I can’t. I promised your old man that I’d help him with something.”

Jason froze before he groaned, “What did that jackass want?”

“Green Lantern business,” Kyle murmured, “I will also have to make a trip to Oa the day after tomorrow as well.”

Jason narrowed his eyes at Kyle in suspicion, “Does this have anything to do with Bruce’s recent obsession with Coast City?”

“What do you think?” Kyle laughed.

Kyle’s only answering reply was an annoyed grunt and Kyle smiled knowingly.

“Relax, Jay. I know you don’t like it when Bruce gets all secretive and all, but we aren’t doing anything dangerous. I promise.” Kyle nuzzled Jason’s chin.

Jason merely gave a disgruntled grunt in reply.

“By the way,” Kyle began, nonchalantly, with a glint to his green eyes that Jason didn’t trust in the slightest.

“What did you do, fuckhead?” Jason growled grumpily as he pulled Kyle under him who was laughing merrily. Jason fought down the smile that was tugging on his lips.

“I may or may not have dropped a bombshell on Bats when he squirreled me away this afternoon,” Kyle had the biggest shit-eatting grin plastered across his face.

Jason blinked in confusion for a bit until realization dawned on him, “You _fucker._ You didn’t. I thought we agreed that I was going to do it?”

“Sorry Jason,” Kyle chirped, completely unapologetic, “But I had an opportunity. I couldn’t _not_ take it. His face was glorious.”

“For fuck’s sake, Rayner. You selfish bastard. That was supposed to be _my_ moment to get the drop on the old man,” Jason growled as he reached out to tickle the man under him, Kyle squirming as he laughed uncontrollably.

“Oh my God, Jason,” Kyle choked out in between bouts of giggles, “St- Stopppp!” 

“Sorry,” Jason feigned innocence as he poked a particularly sensitive spot, “I can’t hear you under all the assholeness.”

Kyle huffed and rolled them over with a breathless grunt and reached out to run his own fingers down Jason’s sides only to be thwarted when a hand grabbed his shirt and pulled him down into a searing kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a tester chapter. I don't think I'm very good at nailing the personalities of any DC character. They are all so complex that I'm afraid I don't do them justice. Like, I'm afraid that I made Bruce more spacey than he really is. Also, I'm sorry if I made Kyle a little OC. I'm not familiar with his character in canon. Like at all outside of other fanfictions. So I'm taking liberties with his character. I'm not sure if anyone will like my story. But I like this idea so I'm going to keep chipping away at it.
> 
> By tester chapter, I meant this is the only thing I am going to post until I completely finish writing the story. I just wanted to get opinions on whether or not people like my writing.
> 
> Also I edited this 7/26/2020, I realized I had Kyle refer to Hal as 'Jordan' in this chapter and then refer him to 'Hal' in later chapters. So I switched it out for the sake of consistency. Also I opted to just keep to first names outside of dialogue because I kept confusing myself over which name to use.


End file.
